When Bailie Smith’s grandmother made the difficult decision to move her husband of almost 60 years into a nursing home, she hoped he would finally be safe.
Instead, just 36 hours after moving into Preston Special Care Home in Saskatoon, William Cone, affectionately known as Lauri, left the facility completely unnoticed on October 11. He had Alzheimer’s.
“It was around 10:30 [a.m. CST] “When my grandmother got the call,” Smith said in an interview. “A concerned citizen called her and saw my grandfather fall and they called the ambulance.”
He said the staff at the home had no idea he was gone and that it was his grandmother who informed them.
Cone, 86, was wearing slippers and had walked about eight blocks with a walker when he fell and broke his hip. He underwent surgery at the Royal University Hospital on October 13, but then declined rapidly. He died on October 20.
The nursing home is managed by the Saskatchewan Health Authority, which has launched a formal review of the situation to determine what happened.
William Cone died after leaving Preston Special Care Home in Saskatoon unnoticed. The 86-year-old man suffered from Alzheimer’s and his family placed him in a nursing home, thinking he would be safer there.
Smith said her grandmother, Elizabeth Cone, who had been her husband’s sole caregiver for years, is devastated.
“She tried to talk to the nursing home…she said she really felt like they were just blaming her, or blaming him for leaving,” Smith said.
“It was very avoidable,” he said. “I’m sad and angry because it didn’t have to happen.”
Cone was admitted to the facility on Oct. 9 for short-term care while awaiting a permanent placement. Smith said staff later told her grandmother that the kitchen was being renovated and that a door near her room had been left open.
He said the only security measure implemented at the facility was that all exit doors had devices locked with security codes. But the door Cone likely used to exit had been left open without any monitoring by staff, security cameras or alarms, he said.
Smith said Cone was a retired Canada Post worker, an active member of his church and was still lucid most of the time.
“He loved the Riders. He also curled and played slow pitches,” he said.
“He was very involved in the grandchildren’s lives. He was the grandfather who showed up for everything and no matter how little it was, as if he were in the audience.”
Calls for research and change
Smith said the family wants an investigation into what happened and broader reforms to prevent it from happening to others.
“This is a widespread problem. I’ve talked to other people whose family members with Alzheimer’s leave their residences all the time. This is not a unique situation. It’s just a situation where someone ended up passing away,” he said.
“We just want changes,” he added.
“We want to see something implemented where it’s mandatory to install cameras, put alarms on patients and keep doors locked because they shouldn’t be able to just walk out,” Smith said.
“It’s really disheartening that a facility that was supposed to have these things doesn’t have them.”
He said his grandmother has contacted the provincial ombudsman and is considering speaking to police, but has not received any written communication from the residence.
“At the nursing home they’ve been ignoring my family quite a bit, like they really don’t want to say too much. I don’t think they want to admit anything,” Smith said.
Response from the Health Authority
In a statement, the SHA said it “extends its deepest condolences to the family for their loss and has reached out directly to the family to extend an invitation to further discuss any concerns about care.”
The formal review “will include obtaining family perspectives, a post-analysis disclosure to the family, including facts and actions taken or to be taken, and actions to consider to improve the delivery of care in the future,” the health authority said.
Smith said her family hopes her decision to speak out publicly will help drive accountability and help other families ask questions before it’s too late.
“These are our loved ones. We need to keep them safe. You know, they’re the ones who raised us and now it’s our turn. We need to take care of them.”
